When I first came to this site, I read For a New Liberty and Ethics of Liberty. However, I feel inadequate in my knowledge on majority of issues. It’s not that I don’t know information, I can look at current events and usually reason out things adequately. But when it comes into getting into deep discussions, like for example, in the mathematics and science fields, to derive equations. I have issues deriving knowledge.
Would something like the Home Study Course here on Mises.org help in that respect? To be able to argue on par with Walter Block, Mises, Rothbard, etc?
depending on how deep you want to get involved, I would suggest a gradual approach. Don’t ‘start’ with Human Action; start with ‘Economics for Real People’ (Callahan) or ‘An Introduction in Austrian Economics’ (Taylor) and, preferably, both. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t help to have Human Action and Man, Economy & State lurking on the background: having it available and reading stuf in it helps. But don’t try the tactic ‘I’m not picking up another book, before I know all the ins & outs of HA’; that will take you a lot of time and will actually hamper your evolution.
After you’ve read these 2 introductions, I would advise some of the more ‘famous’ short texts in AE.
Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (Mises)
What has Government done to our Money (Rothbard)
Some essays out of ‘Individualism and Economic Order’ (Hayek)
Collectivist Economic Planning (edited by Hayek)
Papers in the Quarterly journal of Austrian Economics and the Review of Austrian Economics; try to get what are more important contributions and what are less. It requires a little skill to do so on title and abstract, but after a while, you get the hang of it.
Don’t forget ‘Socialism’ and ‘Theory and History’ by Mises; both are an absolute must read. I must admit that I haven’t read Theory of Money & Credit (TMC) myself, but I haven’t found myself in need to so. (For example; I haven’t encounter an instance that someone said: 'you really should read TMC because this relevant insight x only gets attention in there.)
Other relevant books who are on the intermediar level are:
Competition and Entrepreneurship (Kirzner)
Theory of the Market Proces (Kirzner)
Law, Legislation & Libery (part 1 and 2) (Hayek) (if you care about legal stuf)
Microfoundations and Macroeconomics (Horwitz)
The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science (Mises)
The Foundations of the Market Process (Shapiro)
The main idea is to find a good balance between ‘papers’ and ‘books’; after an initial stage of introductory stuf, to get the general idea.
Of course; the advise I’m giving here is based on my experience for the last 3 years. It has payed of though.
